ZEMCH 2019 International Conference Proceedings April.2020 | Page 455
The core decision categories are: (i) Solution Space (adapted from [9]), (ii) Strategy and
customisation level (adapted from [9]), (iii) Assessment and feedback, and (iv) communication of the
information about customisation. The solution space category includes the customisation unit category,
which was considered as a separate category by Rocha [9]. However, this research suggests an
integration of both due to the strong interdependency between them. Strategy and customisation level
is another decision category proposed: it is related to the definition of product variants by different
stakeholders from the value chain. This category is strongly related to the concept of customer order
decoupling point (CODP) and the extent of customer integration in the product development process.
The CODP is the point defined during the value‐adding material flow that separates the processes
based on a forecast and customer demand (order), outlining the extent of customisation of the product
[17]. Furthermore, this category relates to the company’s competitive strategy and position in the
market, building upon the simple relationship of the customisation level with operations, as suggested
by Rocha [9].
Two new core categories were defined (iii) Assessment and feedback and (iv) Communication of
customisation information. Regarding assessment and feedback, it is related to the need of capturing
customers demand for customisation, based on the evaluation of previously delivered products to
understand emerging and evolving requirements. This means that this decision category is strongly
related to how companies capture and consider customers’ requirements, and integrate them into the
product development process. Finally, communication of customisation information is a decision
category that is concerned with making information available to stakeholders effectively by managing
the information flow among departments and encouraging collaboration [4,5,16].
Table 5 : Decision Categories and example of related practices
Decision Category
Solution space
Strategy and level of
customisation
Communication of
customisation
information
Assessment and
feedback
Visualisation
approaches
Customer
interaction and
relationship
Examples of Practices
Post‐Occupation evaluations of the products to understand customers’
needs and offer additional customisation units after product delivery;
Define a solution space with limited customisation units to offer
customers in order to achieve economies of scale;
Advertise the possibility of customisation to customers as a competitive
differentiation;
Systematically map the product development process aiming to find
process improvement opportunities and potential areas of the economy;
Share information about the customisation performance within different
departments;
Use methods and tools to collect customer orders and facilitate the
communication between different departments in the company;
Identify the demand for customisation and consumers’ preferences to
support the solution space definition;
Provide the customisation cost information to support customer decision
making in the product configuration facilitating the comparison of
alternatives;
Establish a dialogue between customers and supplier for configuring the
product according to their needs;
Provide precise product specifications and information about the
customisation status about the product to the clients.
Customer Integration Best Practices to Support Mass Customization in House-building Projects
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